heavy snow and ice knocked out power in several cities including parts of maine and michigan. lake effect snow continues off lake ontario and those areas east and southeast of lake ontario should pick up an additional 3 to 6 inches by tomorrow. the storms will keep on coming, a minor system beginning on christmas eve will dump a few inches of snow in ohio through pennsylvania, north jersey, and southern new england. and we're tracking another major storm on the west coast which will bring a stripe of snow from oklahoma city to the midwest by christmas before heading up to the northeast mid week with coastal cities getting mostly rain and those inland either snow or a mix. so after a very mild winter last year, a whole lot of action in the last week. lester? >> all right. scott newell checking in for us. thanks. now to the mad rush at airports across the country tonight. nbc's gabe gutierrez is at the world's busiest airport hartsfield jackson in atlanta. how is it looking? >> reporter: well, major airports caught a bit of a break today. nowhere near as many cancellations as we